MEMP PhD Thesis Defense: Daniel Magley

Wireless Thermal Capsule Endoscopy: A Bowel Preparation Free, Sedation Free, Outpatient Alternative to Colonoscopy

Gold standards in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening and evaluating Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) of colonoscopy, ileocolonoscopy, and Wireless Video Capsule Endoscopy (WVCE) are limited to visualizing pathologies on the luminal surface. Meanwhile both inflammation and malignancy produce heat that readily conducts through both tissue and bowel contents. I propose using a Wireless Thermal Capsule Endoscopy (WTCE) system to detect and quantitatively measure metabolic activity at sites of pathology. I perform in-vivo luminal thermal imaging on a 2,4,6-Trinitrobenzene Sulfonic Acid (TNBS) chronic colitis swine model (n=2) and a novel acute bowel wall inflammation swine model using Escherichia coli (E. Coli) Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injections (n=6). Guided by the inflammation study results, I designed a high thermal sensitivity wireless capsule and performed benchtop safety and efficacy testing adapted from FDA accepted WVCE testing protocols. Furthermore, I developed a position tracking swine model dataset and algorithms for tracking capsule position while requiring no additional hardware to current WVCE systems. I validated the final device in-vivo using a healthy swine model (n=2) and demonstrated a strong correlation between luminal temperature rise measured through fecal contents and CD45 Immunohistochemistry of the bowel wall (PCC = 0.74-0.81). Using the final WTCEsystem, I demonstrate first-in-human studies (n=5) to thermally image full human gastrointestinal tracts and reconstruct gastrointestinal anatomy of the entire human GI tract. The end WTCE device has potential to increase sensitivity, image the entire GI tract, and improve patient experience by requiring no bowel preparation or sedation forboth routine IBD monitoring and CRC screening.

Thesis Supervisor:
Guillermo Tearney, MD, Ph.D.
Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School

Thesis Committee Chair:
Peter So, Ph.D.
Professor of Mechanical and Biological Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Thesis Readers:
Fadel Adib, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, MIT Media Lab and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Hamed Khalili, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

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Topic: Daniel Magley MEMP PhD Thesis Defense
Time: Wednesday, December 10, 2025, 11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

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